Late

Listening to Shirley as I type. This CD can still be found for an affordable price. Never heard Wally Richardson on guitar before. Nice playing.

Well, now CD Japan has pulled the RVG description from the song titles. Never seen that happen before. Maybe these aren't RVGs ... ? I'd have to re-order if that's the case.

I didn't add any tunes from Boppin' & Burnin' ... because I don't have that album. (Ashamed emoji.) This must be corrected! And, d'oh! — "Walkin'" for sure.

Here's a Don Patterson challenge: Selecting just from his Prestige-led sessions, how would you order a playlist to fit on one compact disc? I'm in the midst of the challenge myself, aiming for a focus on mid-tempo grooves instead of burners. So far, I have: 1. Music To Think By (Mellow Soul) 2. There Will Never Be Another You (from the Soul Happening! session) 3. Wade In the Water (Soul Happening!) 4. Head (Mellow Soul) 5. Funk In 3/4 (Funk You!) 6. Donny Brook (Donny Brook) 7. Brothers-4 (Brothers-4) 8. Goin' To Meetin' (Satisfaction) 9. 10. 11. 12. Suggestions welcome for how to complete the playlist! I didn't let myself use Sonny Stitt-led sessions; otherwise I would have included "Soul People." And of course list your favorite Prestige Patterson records here! (Nothing wrong with the Muse dates of course.)

Perhaps my favorite Higgins soloing is on Sonny Rollins' 1962 Village Gate recordings. He's also essential to The Shape of Jazz To Come.

Here's an actual live McDuff date!

No posts since 2009? Don says: And then plays Airegin.

Speaking of Patterson, I listened to this one (on YouTube) today: I wish I had it on vinyl.

Actually, I think you mean Stompin'? (The album with the sole Patterson track included?) Workin', though I haven't heard it (though actually just ordered it), has Ronnell Bright on it. I haven't heard much of the Lockjaw material on King. I do have this comp, which is excellent, and close to the 80 minute mark. (Sorry about the gi-normous image.) You can hear the entirety of Scott's Soul Sister (quartet recording with Lem Winchester) and Travelin' Light (quartet recording with Kenny Burrell) right here. The first record in particular is in a relaxed deep groove. Both are excellent.

AND ... for Shirley and Lock fans, there's also this one: Anderson might be an acquired taste, but the record is solid.

Great discussion and recommendations on Shirley! I don't know her Impulse! work as well as her Prestige work. I own Girl Talk, which is beautifully recorded but also one of Shirley's tamer efforts. On a related note — if you get a chance to hear this one, do! Pitts' work on Prestige is sometimes weighed down by commercial efforts (i.e. her vocals, even though they're not that bad), but this record is pure jam. Some of it's on YouTube. Recommended. And ... there was more Shirley on Prestige that could have been added! In addition to Drag 'Em Out, there's also Workin', which has (on some of the tracks) Shirley on organ and Ronnell Bright on piano. Oh yeah — and her quartet date with Lem Winchester! Shirley Scott Discography. I use this discography to sort out her many recording dates. Her first session with Prestige yielded far more than could be put on one record. Oh — I also forget that Shirley recorded two Ellington albums for Prestige. I've never heard the second one (Satin Doll).

I'm pretty sure you're right, unless there was one of those bat-of-an-eyelash Japanese issues, say, some time in the 90's. Thank goodness at least part of the record is on YouTube — but I'd purchase a sanctioned compact disc release in a heartbeat. Such a relaxed, groovy record — well, what I've heard of it. I've never heard the title track! There's a deep humility in Shirley's playing — she never uses the B3 to show off. The Song Has Ended

Real Gone Jazz has issued them on compact disc. Sound is quite good.

This looks to be a great comp. Newly remastered, too.

It's now up on the CDJapan site. When you click on one of the titles and then scroll down to the song tracks, it will say (for example) "Remastered/2003 Rudy Van Gelder Edition." Goin' Up and the live disc are exceptions, however.

Bummer! These are RVG remasters. Just cancelled my order.

Five new SHM-CDs. None of these titles, to the best of my recollection, have been reissued as SHM-CDs in Japan. I'm especially excited about Hub-Cap and Blue Spirits. The latter will have seven tracks, which means it will include the fabulous "Melting Pot" track, not found on the TOCJ Blue Note Works issue. Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Reggie Workman, and Elvin Jones. (And the stealth sixth man Hosea Taylor on alto saxophone, though only in ensemble.) I hope these SHM-CDs sound as good as the 75th anniversary titles.

Thank you!

Not too long ago I put together a 78 minute personal "best-of" compilation from Shirley's Prestige catalog — importantly, with no horns — and listened to it while making dinner last night. Everybody else at home was doing their own thing, so I had a chance to really zero in on Shirley's soloing — how she finesses grace notes (both quick and slow), her use of glissandi, and her approach to eighth notes in general. I must say, I think Shirley Scott is perhaps my very favorite organist, or rather the organist I derive the most pleasure from listening to. Ten or so years ago, I know I would have said Larry Young. But these days I'm listening for other, perhaps more subtle, aspects in a jazz organ solo. There's a slyness, and a reluctance to dazzle, that I hear in Scott's work that I don't hear in other organists of her era. Granted, I still don't know organists in the way that I'm familiar with other instrumentalists, but Scott — perhaps because she was a woman in a male-dominated scene, and perhaps because her choice of organ settings made her playing occasionally sound dated or comical — I think is still greatly under-valued. There's no question she could swing. Her solos on paper might not be especially remarkable. But her handling of the jazz idiom for organ is unlike any of her contemporaries that I can think of. Those trio records with George Duvivier and Arthur Edgehill aren't just fun listening; they offer, in my opinion, an essential alternative to the Jimmy Smith experience. And that Plays Horace Silver record? Damn. I hope Horace owned that one.

I'm going to spin that today, along with the track "Mediocre." Thanks for mentioning. I haven't spun Time Waits in a long time.

Stumbled upon this short article this evening while doing some John Carter research.

I had the same experience a year or so ago. Never mind technique; he has a command of the jazz piano idiom (mostly Peterson and Hancock as I hear it), which is something else entirely. I hope he continues to develop and become (crucially) more idiosyncratic. In that vein, I hope someone plays, say, Cecil Taylor or Lennie Tristano for him.

"On that note, one wonders about Yeats’s claim that the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Trane is as passionately intense as ever. Did he lack conviction? Maybe the Yeatsian opposition is false and passionate intensity covers up or disguises a deeper lack of conviction." I missed this thread the first time around (three years ago). Some fine reading. I have two thoughts when reading the Dyer quote above: • No, I don't think "one" wonders about Yeats's claim at all. At least Yeats doesn't enter into my mind when considering Coltrane's Temple recording. I do understand that "one wonders" is rhetorical, but I think Dyer's underlying sentiment is actually imperative, that is: You should wonder, like me! • When I do wonder about Yeats's claim, I can see how Dyer's proposition fits his own writing — e.g. Dyer's "deeper lack of conviction" when it comes to examining Coltrane's music in context is disguised by a "passionate intensity" of his own opinion, conveniently leading him to his own "terminus" or "brick wall."

Very interesting observations. I've never considered that Bud had songs he'd lean on (and that weren't in a typical set list) while struggling through especially dark periods. "Epistrophy" makes more sense in this regard. That opening ostinato in the left hand is dark indeed.

This was my impression (based solely on sound samples) as well. I have to return to Remains. I remember being blown away the first time I heard it. Solo Lacy is so different than Lacy in a trio; it's like talking about different varieties of wine.